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Many people for many reasons may fall behind in filing their income tax returns.

The most common reason is that they do not have the money to pay the income tax due. This is particularly true for the small businessman who has not made estimated tax payments. It is easy to panic when April 15th comes and put off filing. Before you know it, another year rolls by and now you have not filed for two years. It goes on and on and the fear of discovery will force people to fall behind for many years and run up thousands of dollars in tax due.

Failure to file a tax return is a crime and the IRS can put your in jail.

Filing a false return, tax evasion, is even worse.

Many people fudge on their returns and claim expenses that do not exist. Some tax return preparers, especially the ones that make tax refund loans, will claim phone tax deductions to run up the amount of the refund. It is the taxpayer himself, not the return preparer that they will come after. Do not file a false return just to get a bigger refund. Do not claim deductions that do not exist.

Over the years, I have represented many Doctors, Lawyers and other professionals for tax return mistakes. Having a secret offshore bank account in recent years has become a huge problem. Many professionals, sometimes ten and twenty years ago, opened an offshore account and now do not know what to do. Should they take advantage of the so called amnesty program or let it ride? It is a tough call for most ordinary people. Confession may be good for the soul but it is rarely a good thing when it comes to criminal law.